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Loz HattonLoz Hatton, 58, started the Ilkeston Inquirer, a free monthly, after leaving The Sun newspaper last year.
He said: “I was kicking my heels and I don’t think the current provision of local news is what it could be.”
JPI Media, which owns rival paper The Ilkeston Advertiser, has been contacted for a comment.
‘Absolute madness’
Mr Hatton, who describes himself as “Ilkeston born-and-bred”, criticised The Advertiser for “basing its staff in Chesterfield and abandoning many local news staples”.
“What’s happened across the country is a lot of these local titles have been hoovered up by conglomerates,” he said.
“Local people have a lot of affection for their local papers – it takes an awful lot to turn them against them but I think, to some extent, that might have happened.”
Ilkeston InquirerThe headline act
As a former Sun sub-editor, Mr Hatton was responsible for crafting some of the paper’s memorable puns. The pages of the Inquirer suggest he still has the knack:
- Lost pet must be weaselly recognisable – story about a Facebook appeal to find a stray ferret
- TV thief has only remote chance – story about a man arrested for stealing two TVs
- Soap Ken’s school to axe its Corrie-culum – story about Coronation Street actor William Roache’s former school
He said the Inquirer’s staff consisted of himself, his family and some former Sun colleagues who were “helping out”.
“Nobody’s getting paid at the moment,” he said.
“It’s being done for love, not money. But we’ll see how it goes. If we can just keep it ticking over, it’ll be a success.”
He said the first edition, which saw 10,000 copies printed this month, had “gone down a storm”.
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